November24

E C A r e v i e w C o r o n a t i o n / S t e t t l e r , A b N o v e m b e r 2 4 ' 1 6 3
Carbon levy impacts Kneehill operating budget
Kneehill County Council completed
their 2017 Operating and
Capital Budgets during deliberations
at the Special Council meeting held
on Nov. 9, 2016 with certain challenges
as there has been a further
decrease in assessments, with nonresidential
assessment being hit the
hardest particularly on the linear
side.
The 2017 budget encapsulates a 14.5
per cent decrease in oil/gas well tax
assessments and a 9.5 per cent
decrease in pipelines assessments.
According to a press release, the
linear portion of the county’s tax
continues to decrease, and is projected
to decrease into the 2018
budget cycle by approximately the
same amount, our financial and
budget challenges will remain in
place for the foreseeable future.
Road construction, road maintenance,
solid waste services and
water have remained virtually
untouched in the budget.
Through streamlining and
removing those items deemed to be
currently unnecessary, the County
was able to provide a balanced
budget that requires no borrowing
and minimal usage of the County’s
reserve accounts.
Net revenues are reduced by approximately
$2.1 million.
Year over year costs associated with
the operating the municipality have
been reduced while taking into consideration
large expenses such as the
projected uncollectable tax losses of
$800,000 and the impact of the provincial
carbon levy.
The carbon levy has a direct impact
on the operating budget of approximately
$120,000 with an additional
increase expected in the cost of goods
and services in both the operating and
capital sides of the budget, as vendors
will be passing on their increased
costs to the County.
On the capital side, $2.9 million is
budgeted for our annual gravel purchase,
$1.2 million for 68 miles of
shoulder pull and another $4 million
(carried over from 2016) for ongoing
road rebuild program as approved in
the Kneehill County Road Master
Plan.
The MSI 2016-17 grants and carry
over funds from the 2016 capital
Christmas Framing
For all
your
Custom Picture Framing
call Charlotte 403-742-2180(h) • 403-740-6684(c)
Designer Frames Ltd.
3” wide Home version
Based Business
12345
From storage to workspace.
Customizable and secure.
Steel containers from 8' - 53'. 20' & 40' skids with
optional 4' landings available. Mount with twist locks.
780 440 4037 | SEACAN.COM
budget are being used to fund the 2017
road rebuild projects.
The Operational budget continues to
prioritize core services such as road
maintenance, snow removal, water
distribution, solid waste, parks, and
agricultural services.
It was council’s goal to complete our
2017 budget with rationalized service
delivery that did not sacrifice the
quality of those same services such as
the roads program.
As a result, there is an ongoing commitment
to our roads program, dust
control, sponsorships and other grant
funding programs which support our
residents in our communities.
Through the Regional Urban
Sustainability Grant, money has been
set aside to also support our small
towns and villages.
Council is also looking towards 2018
anticipating further losses in industrial
taxation with forecasts show that
in 2018 an approximate $2 million
dollar loss of net County revenues
with a corresponding drop in residential
assessments.
According to the press release,
“Through Council’s Strategic Plan and
Clive votes for Geographic Information
System to map roads, sewer, water lines
Lisa Joy
ECA Review reporter
The Village of Clive, at its regular
meeting Nov. 14, voted in favour of
using Geographic Information System
(GIS) to map its roads, as well as its
sewer and water lines.
“Having GIS in-house will allow
public works, or us, when residents
come in (with inquiries), to pull it up
and take a look. It will help with
trouble shooting,” said Clive Chief
Administrative Officer (CAO) Carla
Kenney.
GIS is a computer system that captures,
stores, checks and displays data
related to the earth’s surface.
For instance, this will allow Clive
public works department to locate a
water line shut off even when it’s five
feet under snow.
The Village of Clive will be the managing
partner for this project with
Caroline, Eckville and Bentley, if their
councils approve their participation
under the Alberta Community
Partnership Program.
The Village of Cremona has already
successfully converted to GIS, said
CAO Kenney.
Initial cost for a community to set up
is $3,500 with a yearly licensing fee of
$2,000.
Cloud technology allows smaller
municipalities to share a server, thus
reducing the cost of the system and
saving on initial aerial data collection
by flying over all the communities in
the same trip.
Donations Needed
Please drop off items suitable for grade 9 and 12 grads &
their families (Dresses, suits, tuxedos, shoes, jewellery,
purses...) at Superfluity Shop, north end of Main Street,
Stettler for the....
Graduation
EVENT
Thurs. Dec. 1 12 noon - 8 p.m.
Fri. Dec 2 12 noon - 8 p.m.
Sat. Dec. 3 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
@ Wm. E. Hay School
• Refreshments, draws & door prizes • Great Shopping
Thanking you in advance for your donation.
For more info, call
403-740-2881(c); 403-742-3657(h); 403-742-0697(b)
Wait and see attitude
Clive council deferred
making a decision on participating
in the 211
Information and Referral
Phone Service offered by
United Way.
“We want to wait and see
what other communities in
the region are doing,” said
CAO Kenney, adding that
Lacombe County, Lacombe
and Blackfalds also deferred
their decisions.
The 211 system allows
callers to access trained
Information and Referral
Specialists 24 hours a day,
seven days a week
regarding social, government,
health and
community services in over
150 languages.
Clive residents can currently
access information
and referral services
through a number of federal,
provincial and
municipal agencies.
Based on Clive’s population
it would cost $494 per
year to join the 211 telephone
service.
FCSS funding continues
Village of Clive will get
$17,166 from the province to
fund its Family and
Community Services
Support (FCSS) program in
2017. That represents 80 per
cent of the funding with the
village kicking in $4,292 for
a total of $21,458.
Clive has its own FCSS
coordinator and the program
is run out of the
Lacombe FCSS.
Drainage issue
Tagish Engineering
looked into a drainage issue
on Longstreet Ave. west of
50 St. near the hotel. They
discovered that there are
two low elevation trap lows
along the north and south
sides of Longstreet Ave. near
the 50 St. intersection.
Tagish’s report to council
said the best option would be
to construct a ditch or swale
along the south
side of the
roadway to the
west where it
could eventually
drain away.
A rough cost is
estimated to be
about $25,000.
Council voted
in favour of providing
these
engineering
results to the
complainant of
the drainage
issues.
County of Paintearth No. 18
DEVELOPMENT PERMIT
APPLICATION APPROVED
Notice is hereby given that the following
Development Permit Application has been
approved:
DP1628 Clem Geo Energy Corp.
SE 15-37-9-W4
80 m Meteorological Tower/Weather Balloon
Any person claiming to be affected by such
decision may appeal by giving Notice in
writing to the Secretary, Subdivision and
Development Appeal Board, County of
Paintearth No. 18, Box 509 Castor, AB T0C
0X0 not later than 4:30 p.m., December 2,
2016. The Notice must contain the reason
for the appeal and pursuant to Bylaw No.
580-09 Include the $200.00 fee.
Dated: November 17, 2016
Todd Pawsey,
Development Officer
Dionne’s
CUSTOM WOODWORKING LTD
Kitchen, Medicine/Vanity Cabinets
& Entertainment Centres
Tom Dionne
Ph. (403) 749-3771 • Fax (403) 749-3775
Castor
Sheet Metal
Plumbing
& Heating
We’ll beat all
competitors prices
Ask us for a
FREE quote!
• Fully Licensed Tradesmen
• Dealers for Lennox High Efficiency
Forced Air Furnaces
long term visioning, we are in a good
financial position to succeed.”
Our previous decisions have left us
in a strong financial position with significant
cash reserves and no debt.”
Furnace Cleaning
Book
Now
$ave on Heating
• Specialists in furnace and
vent cleaning
• Serving Central Alberta
• Residential / Rural
• In business 22 years
$70 Discount
Available
403-854-0378 (cell)
leave msg with your home or cell number
Avoid the new Carbon Tax!
Replace that outdated
inefficient furnace TODAY!
• Repairs of all makes of Furnaces
4901-50 St Castor AB • 403 882 3388
24 Hour On-Call Service • 403-740-2535